'I Should Have Won'

"Today's my s****y day," the man sputtered, slamming what would have been his lunch in front of the cashier and storming off. "I don't need this f***in' s***!"

When we finally caught up with John Conners outside the store, he admitted he was pretty steamed.

"I got upset because he won and I should have won," he said.

What Conners didn't know until now is that he'd walked right into one of our "What Would You Do?" hidden camera experiments. But how would shoppers react when they allow someone to cut in line in front of them only to have that person win $500 for being the store's 5 millionth customer?

The answer seemed obvious to Conners.

"I guess you got what you're lookin' for," he said.

Our experiment took place at Stew Leonard's, a supermarket in Yonkers, N.Y. In addition to the burly young man, played by actor Brad Lee Wind, we used a second character to cut the line, an older woman, played by actor Renee Queen. And of course, the winner's check was bogus.

Queen's Turn

When actor Queen, a grandmother, asked a woman if she could cut in front of her in line, she did so in a sweet, pleasant manner. "My husband's in the car," she said. "He gets so anxious."

"You got somebody out there?" the woman asked.

"My husband," Queen replied. To that, the woman rolled her eyes. "Say no more, say no more. That's a man."

Then the woman's friend joined the express line and they made small talk with Queen, mostly about the weather and items in the store that were on sale. But the conversation stopped abruptly when Queen reached the cashier. The music started playing, the lights flashed and the store staff surrounded Queen with cheers and noisemakers.

Queen, as directed by "What Would You Do?" producers, looked as though she didn't know what had hit her. She appeared dazed by the blinking lights and all of the cheering.

Happy for 'Winning Customer'

"Congratulations," said the prize lady, also an actress hired by ABC. "You're our 5 millionth customer!"

"No s***! That would have been me!" shouted the woman who relinquished her place in line.

But unlike John Conners, who'd given up his place for our male actor, this woman was smiling. Her friend, standing nearby, laughed in disbelief.

After presenting the check for $500 to Queen, the prize lady turned to the women who thought they'd just missed out on a big payday: "You guys were so close," she gushed, trying to be sympathetic.

"Actually, I gave her my spot," said Nellie Aviles, still smiling.

Time and again, fellow shoppers were angry when Wind won, and they were happy for Queen.